100% Grain Multigrain Sandwich Loaf By Hand? You Bet!

After that sad second experiment with the food processor last week - where cleaning time sort of cancelled out the time saved in kneading, and watching Michael Kalanty's course on Craftsy/Bluprint - and after my happy result making ciabatta rolls by hand, I decided to tackle the Serious Eats recipe I had made last week. Apart from the mess, it was a success and the recipe is one that you can start and finish on the same day.

This is what's left of it:

Serious Eats recipe made in food processor

The author, Stella Parks, warns that no other method but the food processor will produce the right results with her recipe, but I was willing to waste a pound of flour and half a cup of grains to test her theory. And I would get further practise in the art of breadmaking à l'ancienne.

I made the same substitutions to the recipe as I did last week - using 12-grain cereal from Bulk Barn instead of the individual grains on her list. Rested grains and flour for 2.5 hours after adding water to them.

That's when I veered away from the recipe. First I mixed the additional liquid, the yeast, sugar and oil together in a large bowl, added them to the wet flour by squishing them between the fingers à la Michael Kalanty. Then I added the salt and the soaked grains and continued squishing and mixing inside the bowl (wetting the fingers now and then) until all was blended, then I turned the dough onto the wet counter and did some slapping and smearing for a while.

I put the dough back in the bowl and let it rest about 20 minutes, then I gave it two turns, every 20 minutes or so, at which point I gave it the windowpane test and... surprise, it passed!

Back in the bowl for the required two hours. Shaped into a loaf and set the timer for 30 minutes and went away. When the timer went off, to my surprise the dough had already over-risen and the oven was still not on... and that's why the dome collapsed - as is obvious in the photo - but otherwise I would say the experiment was a success - wouldn't you?

Serious Eats recipe made entirely by hand

This bread is good and it works well as a sandwich loaf. But I need a deeper flavour, so next I need to tackle a slightly more complex loaf - one made with a poolish that has been fermenting overnight.

Stay tuned!

Ciabatta By Hand? Yes!

If and until I replace my KitchenAid mixer and/or spring for a better food processor, I'm pretty well stuck making bread by hand and today I made this batch of my own ciabatta recipe and frankly I can't tell the difference.

I used the method proposed by Michael Kalanty in the Craftsy class that I purchased years ago before they changed their name to Bluprint and made you subscribe instead of selling individual courses. (Luckily I had quite a few in my library and they're there "forever" for me to go back to.)

The class I'm referring to is "Secrets of Whole Grain Bread Baking" - nothing to do with white ciabatta, but bread is bread! I learned a lot from Mr. Kalanty, and it is mostly this: don't be afraid to handle your dough - even if it's super wet like this ciabatta!

Basically you mix your poolish and leave it overnight (check!), then you add the water and the flour and mix by hand (check!), then you rest and "develop" (that's bakerspeak for "knead") by hand in two stages, a total of only six minutes.

I know this dough so well that I was able to feel when it was ready to set aside and then to split into rolls and then to bake, so I couldn't give details even if I wanted.

Next I will make his "Seeded bâtard" which is a 100% whole wheat with seeds (I'm using 10-grain cereal instead because that's what I have and I'm adding extra sunflower seeds). I will make it freeform the first time (or in my oval banneton), but what I'd really like would be a sandwich bread baked in a pan that I could make regularly as my more healthy bread. At least until I can find a source of grains with reasonable prices so that I can start baking that wonderful Danish rye bread I posted here last year. I miss it so much!

Kneading Bread Dough in the Food Processor

Google this and you'll find all sorts of links, but the most important one -- based on Charles Van Over's recipe from his book Best Bread Ever -- has just been deleted. It's important because it describes the process very thoroughly.

When I sold my house last December and decided to move a thousand miles away, I got rid of all my aging appliances and my big KitchenAid mixer was one of them. (Talk about something keeping its value -- I advertised it for $250 and my inbox immediately filled with buyers!)

Before springing for a new one, I thought I'd try to make all my breads without it. First I wanted to try kneading in the food processor. The ciabatta is going to be my first experiment.

Meanwhile, to perfect the technique I made a loaf of the Van Over bread. I followed the recipe exactly. I won't publish it here -- I suspect the publisher complained about copyright infringement --, but I did order the book and even though it's out of print you can get a used copy very cheaply, or your Library may have it.

It's a very simple recipe, makes a decent bread with a nice open texture in spite of a mere 45 seconds of kneading. Here is my loaf:

I shaped it in my oval banneton.

It looks good but flavour-wise, I would certainly not describe it as the "best bread ever" as it lack the depth that I am accustomed to in my white breads. A sort of slightly sour taste, like a mild sourdough.

Also it didn't keep very well; it dried very quickly in spite of being stored in plastic.

But I'm still glad I ordered the book because there are other recipes in there that I might want to play with.

As for the ciabatta, the starter is bubbling nicely as I write this, and tomorrow I'll let you know how it worked out. (I read somewhere that you can't knead wet doughs in the food processor so it's finger crossed until the AM!)

I'm already dreaming of what I will do with the price of the KitchenAid mixer I won't have to buy...